by Sommer Smith
That was the most startling, and far more dangerous to her heart. The tough, steely navy SEAL was transformed before her eyes, to more of a playful boy, at one with the mammals he loved so much. His gray eyes crinkled with a laughing smile, glowing with a joy she felt on a deeper level, down in her soul. Perfect white teeth under his full lips, visible where his head bobbed just above the water, were flashing back at her every time she laughed.
She had never known anyone else to enjoy the dolphins this much besides herself. It was like a mirror of her own reactions to the animals. All her reservations fled.
No, she couldn’t be letting emotion get to her. She couldn’t be so easily taken in by a man. Thoughts rushed to her mind of another man she had once believed had tender qualities. It had been a scam. She couldn’t believe it so easily again.
Keilani pushed those memories to the back of her mind. She couldn’t think about them now, couldn’t think about Micah as anything but her coworker. She couldn’t like him. Not even a little. Right now she would just bask in the feeling of not looking over her shoulder, heart pounding in fear. This moment would be over too soon anyway.
“Let’s give them their rewards and feed everyone. They’re going to be worn out. We also need to doctor Schwartz. He got a little too enthusiastic playing with one of the older males and the other dolphin got aggressive. He has some cuts that need to be treated.”
Micah swam over and helped her from the pool before leading her to the supplies they would need for doctoring the wounded dolphin. She examined the wound to make sure the cuts were healing properly and recommended an ointment that might be effective at speeding up the healing process. She knew it was common for male dolphins to play aggressively and even fight, but she hated seeing the teeth scrapes on the young dolphin’s skin. Though it was part of the natural order of things, she wished it didn’t happen.
After they fed all the dolphins, Micah also asked her to look at another one who needed attention.
“She’s not necessarily unhealthy. There’s just something about Rhianna that seems off somehow.” Micah led her to the dolphin in question as he explained. “It might be nothing, but it’s a feeling I have. Maybe her change in attitude shouldn’t be ignored and all.”
Keilani murmured her agreement and began a thorough examination of the dolphin. Rhianna didn’t want to cooperate at first, but as Keilani spoke softly to her and persisted with her gentle palpations, she eventually relented.
Not long into her exam, Keilani noticed a hard place on the dolphin’s abdomen. It was just enough to make her curious, but closer investigation caused her some alarm. Maybe it was nothing, but it seemed to need more exploration.
She looked up at Micah with lips pressed tightly together.
“What is it?” He wore a look of grave concern.
“I’m not positive, but it feels like a tracking chip. I’m afraid I’m going to have to examine her more closely to be sure.” She gave Rhianna a reassuring rub.
“You mean exploratory surgery?” Micah’s concern was evident.
“Maybe nothing that drastic, but she probably needs a sedative, and we’ll need to put her in a secure holding pen.” She winced. “Hopefully, I’m wrong.”
“If you’re not...” He trailed off, but she knew what he was thinking. It would be his worst nightmare.
And it certainly wouldn’t take the drug runners long to realize she wasn’t in her usual holding area if they were tracking her.
It was heartbreaking to think someone would use an innocent animal for such a terrible purpose. “It also doesn’t really explain her attitude change.”
He ran a hand through his still-damp hair. “You think there’s more?”
She nodded. “Most likely.”
Micah rubbed Rhianna’s head. “I should have kept a closer eye on you, girl.”
“She’ll be okay. But we need to take care of this as quickly as possible.”
While Micah prepared a holding pen and got Rhianna prepped for the procedure, Keilani called her mentor, a marine vet named Dr. Carmen Segall.
“How do I identify and treat a cetacean who has been exposed to unknown illegal substances?” Keilani asked quietly. “This wasn’t really covered thoroughly in vet school.”
Dr. Segall made an agreeing noise. “No, and I hoped you’d never have to deal with such an event. But working with navy dolphins, I suppose it’s a different arena. Fortunately, though, I’ve had some experience there, just not much. What symptoms present?”
“Just a change in attitude and appetite. There’s a hard place on her abdomen, but it’s small and I suspect it’s a tracking device the drug runners are using to keep up with her.” Keilani kept her voice low, peering over her shoulder. She knew Micah probably already suspected what was happening, but she didn’t want to alarm him unnecessarily if Rhianna wasn’t being used as a drug mule.
“Hmm. Probably, but it could be something else. Most of the time the easiest place to insert a device like you’re describing is in the upper anterior portion. If you can check that out without having to use invasive procedures, that should give you a clue,” Dr. Segall explained. “I’d recommend ultrasound.”
“Of course. I’ll check it out. Hopefully, I’m wrong.”
“Keilani, have you reported this to anyone?” Dr. Segall’s voice was low and soft.
“Of course not. I just discovered it.” She explained how it had occurred.
“Right. Well, I don’t need to remind you that the welfare of the animals comes first.”
Fresh guilt swept over her. What would be the ethical thing to do? She hadn’t mentioned the suspicions that Gretchen wanted her to check on to Micah. She wanted to protect him, but she didn’t know why. She hadn’t had time to process everything and it was making her head spin.
“Yes, I know. I have a duty to protect them. But I can’t report anything until I have facts. And there is also the protocol of the US Navy to consider. I need to know what exactly is going on before I speak to anyone. The navy is doing the best they can with these dolphins. I just have to figure out what could have been done to prevent this, if anything.”
“Just be sure that you do. I know you have always had strong ethics. Don’t let the navy intimidate you.” Dr. Segall spoke gently, but her words resonated.
After a few more minutes of discussion in which Dr. Segall advised her on care and treatment, Keilani disconnected and went to join Micah and Rhianna. “I think we’d best do an ultrasound before we do anything else.”
He turned to study her at the announcement. “Of course. I guess I should have thought of that. I’ll have to gather up the equipment we need and the mobile sonogram unit.”
When they had everything together, they positioned Rhianna with a sling designed to hold her most of the way out of the water, rubbed her down gently with diaper rash ointment to keep her skin moistened and sedated her. Keilani looked at Micah as they waited, letting the dolphin settle. She let out a few cries in protest of her capture, but gradually began to just float in the sling as the sedative took over.
No longer having an excuse to put it off, Keilani went to work, dreading what she would find. She located the patch of hard skin where she thought the tracking device might be. Running the transducer over Rhianna’s skin around the area, she watched the images form on the corresponding screen. Her heart sank at the object that appeared. Though tiny, she was certain it shouldn’t be there, and there were very few possible explanations. She stopped moving the transducer and raised her eyes to Micah’s.
She saw her own despair reflected there.
“Can you remove it?” His voice was quiet, wrecked.
Keilani nodded, wanting to comfort him. No doubt he felt responsible, though Keilani knew there was no way he could watch over the animals every second. But even worse, it just confirmed there was someone on the inside involved in the dr
ug smuggling. It was a horrific breach of trust and she sympathized with him to the depths of her being. How could anyone possibly consider betraying their family that way? Because that was how Micah would see it—utter betrayal of family.
Working carefully while Micah held the ultrasound transducer in place for her, Keilani gently prodded the tracking device from beneath Rhianna’s skin. It was slow, tedious work, but Keilani didn’t want to do any more damage than was absolutely necessary. Once she had it, she slid it from the cow’s body and dropped it into a metal container Micah had pulled from the supply box under the ultrasound machine.
She sighed. “What next? Do you want me to go over the rest of her body with the transducer to make sure there isn’t anything else? A tracking device itself doesn’t exactly explain her changed behavior.”
“You’re the expert. But I would probably feel better if I knew there wasn’t anything else.” He was running his hands through his hair again, and though it was pretty short, it stood up boyishly atop his head.
She refocused her thoughts and took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s get a good look, then.”
Rhianna was drifting in and out of sleep now, so she didn’t protest as Keilani ran the transducer along her body, then up and down and around her fins. Nothing else seemed unusual.
Unexpectedly, Rhianna began to hiccup. It was kind of funny at first, but when it continued, the dolphin began to show obvious signs of distress. Keilani checked her vitals and found they were off. She did a vigorous search for any sign of the cause. Micah, too, was trying desperately to ascertain the problem.
“She’s choking!” Keilani gasped at last. “Help me get her beak open.”
He did and Keilani practically dove in, doing a thorough sweep of the depths of her throat. At first, she couldn’t find anything, but finally her fingers brushed against a foreign object. She tried again to locate it in the same area, then at last, grasped it with the tips of her fingers, just firmly enough to tug it free.
Rhianna stopped her struggle almost too suddenly, but her vitals returned to normal. Micah, too, seemed to relax with relief. Or at least he did at first...until his gaze landed on what Keilani held out in the palm of her hand.
SEVEN
The obtrusive pouch filled with white powder mocked him with sickening intensity. His stomach turned over with the reality of the evil they were facing. He couldn’t deny it any longer.
One of their brothers had sold them out.
Why, Lord? Why would anyone do this? He realized it was one of the first prayers he had uttered in a long time. Shame swept through him.
Keilani was saying something to him in a soft, low voice, but all he could hear was the roar of anger as the full force of the situation hit him. He shook himself, doing his best to keep his training in mind. He couldn’t let it take over. He couldn’t lose control. He had to keep his edge.
“Is there more?” He heard the deadly calm in his voice and knew Keilani heard it, too, when her face paled.
“Let me get a more thorough look at her abdominal cavity. It’s likely there is, but I’m not sure how to extract it.” To her credit, her hands didn’t shake as she began probing again, but she was definitely shaken.
“Find out.” He almost flinched at the harshness of his own voice. This wasn’t personal, but it was the worst betrayal he had ever felt.
Keilani reacted by performing what he asked almost mechanically. Her movements became succinct and efficient. Too efficient. He knew that was at least in part because of him. “There are a few more, that I can see.”
“Will you have to cut her open?” He bit out the question.
“Maybe not. We can try some other things first.”
It was a long afternoon, but thankfully, most of the rest of the world was quiet. Micah found it really odd that Keilani’s attackers hadn’t been around for so long. This was the longest reprieve they had gotten so far. He decided the work Keilani did with the dolphins was even more exhausting than SEAL work, at least mentally. He felt drained of everything by the time they finished with Rhianna.
“Do you think she’s the only one?” Keilani’s tone suggested she feared the answer.
“Probably not. But how do we figure it out? Are we going to run an ultrasound on over seventy cetaceans?” Frustration edged his voice.
“I guess not. We’ll just have to keep a close eye on all of them, then.” Keilani looked around the extensive property. She was probably considering the odds of figuring out which dolphins were at highest risk. And would they be able to prevent injury to them if they were being used as drug mules?
“I’d better call in the authorities to make sure these are documented and disposed of.” Micah indicated the packets of drugs. He then followed her gaze. “I’ve decided we’re staying here tonight. I’ll have one of the guys bring us some food.”
She surprised him with a quick response. “Good. I was thinking we should stay.”
He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “I was afraid you would argue. It won’t be very comfortable sleeping out here.”
Her response came without hesitation. “The dolphins come first.”
Approval swelled within him. He shouldn’t be surprised, of course, but he liked to know she was so dedicated to her calling. “What do you need from the house? I’ll ask Emmett to bring it.”
She pushed a lock of dark hair over her shoulder. “Nothing. I’m good.”
Less than an hour later, they settled in with the food and then relaxed near the center of the dolphin facilities. Micah chose a place where they would be able to keep a good watch over the majority of the dolphins. Keilani seemed content to just observe them as they swam and played where he had turned some of them into a pen together.
“I’d like your advice on ways to improve conditions for these dolphins, if you have any to offer. There are some who think they are unjustly treated.”
She seemed to choose her words carefully. “There are many who are opposed to keeping cetaceans in captivity, no matter the purpose.”
“And what are your thoughts on the matter?” He watched Nikita and Mulan nose one another before splashing around.
“I believe it’s a slippery slope. On one hand, dolphins and humans can get along very well. The dolphins have much to teach us. It’s not very different from keeping animals in a zoo or taming wild mustangs. Do humans have the right to choose for them? I think the Bible says so, when God gave Adam the admonition to care for all the things of the earth. But how do we know when we are making good choices for them? That’s the hard part.” She studied her hands.
Micah was puzzling over her words. “But some might argue that wild mustangs, for example, were starving on their own. Dolphins seem to be having no trouble surviving in the wild. Does that make a difference? I’m not sure, sometimes, if we are mistreating them or not.” He finally looked directly at Keilani.
“You aren’t mistreating them. That’s for sure. Would they be happier in the wild? Who knows? We just have to do the best we can.” Her voice sounded different, strained almost.
“Yeah, I guess we are all just doing the best we can, right? So what would make life better for them, then? Other than letting them go.”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that. But they seem pretty happy and well-adjusted to me. And actually, letting them go would be difficult at this point. It would be dangerous to release them into the wild without them being reintroduced to survival skills under supervision. These dolphins no longer remember how to hunt for food and defend themselves.”
“Good point. They are fed better than I am.” He chuckled. She gave a small smile and looked away. He wasn’t at all sure what it meant.
“In any case, at least your dolphins have a strong purpose. Defense is a little more important than putting on a show for people at an aquatic park.”
She sa
id no more, and he let it drop, but he felt sure there had been more to the conversation than he had been aware of somehow.
It was several hours later when the hair on the back of Micah’s neck began to prickle. He had just made a lap around the enclosures and settled back down beside Keilani, whom he felt sure was dozing lightly where she lay snuggled against a wall near a door. She, too, began to stir at that moment as if her senses were alerted.
A loud bang, much like a door slam, brought them both upright. Keilani started to jump up, but Micah stayed her with a hand. Then he put a finger to his lips to warn her.
They sat absolutely still, waiting. For a long time it was so quiet it was almost like they had imagined it. But just as Micah began to relax, thinking maybe the cause was something mundane he could investigate, the senses controlling his instincts buzzed awake once more. Prickles bumbled over his skin.
“Keilani, stay down. No matter what happens, just stay down.” Micah rolled onto his stomach, pulling his Sig and aiming it along the horizon as he scanned the area. Nothing moved at first, but then he heard the unmistakable grind of the gate to one of the dolphin enclosures beginning to move. He dropped the gun to his side. When his eyes met Keilani’s he could read the question she was silently asking him. Do they know we’re here?
He shook his head. He wasn’t positive, but he didn’t think their presence had been detected. Throwing up a hand to remind her to stay put, he set his gun on the edge of the pool so he could slide himself carefully forward. He silently belly-crawled over to where the noise had seemed to originate. Just as he feared, the gate being opened was to the pen where Rhianna was normally housed. Was the perp about to discover her absence? And worse, would he grow angry when he did? Or did he already know? Was he coming because her tracker had gone dark?
Micah’s main concern was for Keilani and the dolphins.
Checking over his shoulder to be sure Keilani was where he’d left her, he maneuvered himself over behind a wall to get a better look. Someone in a full-body wetsuit was bent over beside Rhianna’s turnout pool peering into the water, apparently unarmed. Micah made a quick judge of distance, calculated a plan of attack in his head, then launched himself at the figure, slamming an elbow down into his back, and then cocking his fist into the man’s solar plexus, momentarily stunning him. The mystery figure came up fighting, catching Micah across the jaw with a powerful punch. Micah dove at him, getting a grip on his arms and sliding him to catch him in a firm clamp around his neck. The other man responded by locking an ankle around Micah’s leg and knocking them both off balance. They tumbled to the ground inches from the water, rolling away from it as each man battled to get the advantage.